Mind Map A photograph Poem

Mind Map

A Photograph 

A Photograph

The Image and the Past

The Snapshot

Two girl cousins paddling with narrator's mother

Mother is the big girl, about twelve years old

Captured by an uncle with a camera

A sweet, youthful face of the mother before narrator's birth

The Sea

Represents time and change

Shows how little the sea has changed, unlike the people in the image

The sea washed their feet, symbolizing the passage of time

The sea holiday as part of her past

Reflection and Laughter

Mother's reaction to the snapshot

Years later, mother laughs at the old photo

Remarks about how her cousins, Betty and Dolly, were dressed for the beach

The photo evokes a sense of nostalgia and humor

The mother's Laughter

Represents the present moment of memory

Both the past (the holiday) and the present (her laughter) are marked by loss

The laughter is "wry," indicating mixed emotions related to time and change

The Passage of Time and Loss

The Mother's Death

The mother has been gone nearly as long as the girl in the photo lived

Her absence is a profound change, which is difficult to articulate

Silence of Loss

The final line, "Its silence silences," emphasizes the quiet, overwhelming nature of grief and loss

The silence is both literal and symbolic, representing the unspoken weight of time and death.

Rhyme Scheme

 The poem has been written in free verse

Poet

Shirley Toulson

 'A Photograph' is a tribute to her mother

Theme

 The poem strongly hints at the eternal state of the natural being and ephemeral state of the humans.